No EE screening of TTT for Mechtild....

If you read my post last week, you'll know I've been terribly excited about seeing The Two Towers in the new high-definition prints that are being shown around the country tonight. After the beautiful visual and aural detail that popped out at me watching the newly remastered FOTR last week, I was really, really, really keen to see this version of TTT -- in spite of the EE having some of my most hated moments in the film trilogy. (I had planned to deal with that by taking my bathroom break just before the worst of ithem came on.) But a big swath of bad weather has enveloped this part of the upper Midwest. Thunderstorms and heavy rains are holding sway over Minnesota today, tonight, and tomorrow. Traffic advisories are flying off the weather sites like Stukas.

Right now, up here, the driving conditions are passable. But I'd have to leave in half an hour to get there in time, if the driving becomes very slow, and the forecasts are just so forbidding. Even here in Duluth, which is on the northern edge of the system, it would be no picnic to be out driving. Towards Minneapolis, where the film is playing, the forecast is worse, and worse still in the river valleys south of the Cities, where I would need to drive tonight to sleep at my friend's. On the National Weather Service, there are flood warnings for the counties down there, hail warnings, even tornado warnings. I think it would be irresponsible of me to go, even though I am sure a heroic hobbit would dare the journey. :(

Ah, well. I will have to wait to see the newly revealed beauties of the opening scene, Treebeard's face, Shadowfax's entrance (I melt), the interior of Meduseld, the gorgeous "Arwen's Fate" sequence, Eowyn's face when Gimli tells her Aragorn fell, the arming scenes for Aragorn and Theoden, Faramir's dream sequence, the destruction of Isengaard, and the awesome cavalry charge down the hill at Helm's Deep at home, when we get our Blu-rays. (Those are just a sampling of moments I love in TTT.) I'll try to think of it as saving money. I'll lose the price of the $13.50 ticket, but save $63.00 on gas. ;)

For you who live elsewhere and are going to see TTT tonight, have a WONDERFUL time. I'm so jelaous!

I like TTT EE the best of the EE's. I think that's because I HATED the official cut; at least the EE made PJ's fanfic version make more sense. I adored the scenes with Boromir and Faramir especially. I'm sorry you couldn't go. I might attempt the final EE showing next week; my cold has subsided enough that I might chance it. Luck to us all!

I love the extra Boromir material at the victory at Osgiliath, too. Very much. And I loved Faramir's dream-vision of Boromir in the boat. Still, overall I thought the EE of FotR was the most successful when it came to improving the theatrical versions. And nothing was added that I didn't appreciate. As for TTT, some scenes I love in the EE, some I hate. Same with RotK's EE: love or hate.

I hope you can go to ROTK next week, Mariole. The EE has never been shown in theatres before. I can't wait! (I'll just close my eyes and put my fingers in my ears here and there.)

But the bright side, if you had to miss one of the 3, good thing it's this one for the rain out, right?

And I'll give you the 2 big drawbacks to blue ray I saw tonight to make you feel better:

1)Afternoon tea shadow. Well, not on Frolijah, but on the other 3 hobbits.

2) Frodo's smile at the end is BLURRED!!! I know it's mostly blurred in the regular versions, but there ARE a couple of frames where it comes into focus, and that split second is my FAVORITE thing in the whole movie and blue ray TOOK IT AWAY!!! Once again, you lose focus in close range movement (either of the moving figure, or the things around the figure), in exchange for gaining a more 3-D sense of sweeping vistas in wide lense focus, which are wonderful. But I'm not happy with the exchange at all! Anything that blurs Frodo's expressions is so not worth it--have these people no sense of what is important? Obviously choosing this comes from the same place tying Arwen's fate to the ring and taking away Frodo's steely will and ability to read others in RotK come from. *walks off mumbling*

Boy, you got back home lickety-split, hey? No, wait. You're in Eastern time.

Well, Lavender, I guess ain't nuthin' perfect, from you're a'tellin' me. Still, I wish I'd seen it on the Big Screen.

What's the afternoon tea shadow? And Frodo's smile at the end - which one? The one when he says, "I want to hear more about Sam", or the "so was I" smile? Or some other smile? I'm surprised because, at least in recollection, neither of those smiles seemed to be delivered while performing action, or hardly any.

choosing this comes from the same place tying Arwen's fate to the ring

Ha ha! Maybe Frodo's smile was tied to the fate of the ring. Well, I guess I'll find out exactly what you mean when our new Blu-rays come. :) In the meantime, thanks bunches for your report. :)

Oh, I love TTT, too, Verangel. Just not all of it. I went to it when it came out over and over, just to immerse myself in it. I merely learned to ignore the parts that bothered me, and I just closed my eyes to not see the skate board routine. Otherwise, I loved the grandeur, the majesty, the sheer sweep of the film. Just the sound of the Rohan theme played would make me well up with tears. Heck, I'm one of the only fans on my f-list who actually thinks Helm's Deep is great. (Except for the skate board.) :)

Oh noes! Frodo's eyes are full of tears! This will never do. *offers her favourite hobbit a hanky, and a very close, warm hobbit-hug*

Aww, I'm sorry, Mechling. Just comfort yourself with the thought of all those heresies. :p (I still can barely stand to watch Osgiliath.) Having said that, the TTT EE is pretty damn good and soooo much better than the theatrical release. My favourite additional sequence is Boromir/Faramir in Osgiliath ... just wonderful.

There's a lot I do actually like in TTT, as sequences in their own right. And Miranda's Eowyn is one of my favourite film characterisations.

-- The opening scene in the Misty Mountains is incredible. One of the best openings to a film, EVER.

-- Gandalf and Balrog falling like a flaming star is jaw-dropping.

-- Arwen by Aragorn's tomb, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Made me gasp out loud first time I saw it, and my eyes filled with tears. I'm not even an A/A fan, but man that was PERFECT.

Aragorn's fake death is STOOPID. :p Although I quite like his reunion with Legolas. ;) And Eowyn's reaction to it ... awwwwww, poor lady.

Hey, come on. Without Aragorn's spectacular fall from the cliff, I'd never written Tinúviel, Tinúviel. Jackson's fanfiction inspired mine, so to speak. I've actually come to love that scene. And I adore Helm's Deep. Scenes from it even made it into a sermon about The Spiritual Armor.*grins*

I got up to the point where Sam is calling Smeagol Stinker and Frodo is like why do run him done all the time and I want to believe he can be saved and all that argument and then the power went out due your aforementioned bad weather - a quite brief but very intense storm with very heavy winds. I wasn't even aware it was happening, thinking it was just extra sound from the movie as this was just when Smeagol was leaping into that stream after some fish and I thought it was that I was hearing. Apparently there was a lot of lightening also but all I heard was the rain. We got passes for a free movie but not sure if it will be rescheduled or not. If it is, it will be tomorrow night. I really hope they will do it because I didn't even get to my two favorite scenes - Smeagol and Gollum's little tete a tete and Frodo drawing Sting on Sam and Sam just loving and loving without skipping a beat. I was really enjoying it too, much more than I did FOTR which is certainly different for me. I am all right but a lot of people are without power, including the office I work out of, a lot of trees and/or large branches down and a lot of lights still out. I'm sorry you missed it but glad you didn't risk it. Here's looking forward to ROTK next week!

Gosh, what a story! Did you go to a theatre in or near Chicago? I'm thinking you must live in that area, since you are going to see the concert-to-film performance this summer at Ravinia. What a storm you had, worse than here! We are in our third day of rain and wind, but the extreme winds are dying down. I haven't heard about power outages or major trees down. I've seen a young street tree that was snapped off, a big branch down here and there, but mostly lots of smaller branches and a lot of leafy debris lyinin the yards and streets. But the cells of the larger storm were so localized, rain hitting the windows like people throwing buckets of water against it for a while, then just wind, then more lashings of rain, maybe there were areas that did have the sort of damage you're describing and I just don't know about it. I'm glad you are safe.

Let me know if they re-show TTT. I sure hope you get to see it, after making it to the theatre for the performance. :)

Oh I'm so sorry you didn't get to see TT. But Frodo wouldn't want you to risk being caught in a severe storm. I think you made the right decision. Hoping hard that all is calm and perfect for ROTK *special hugs*

The forecast is for mild weather this week, maybe some rain, but nothing tempestuous. Yay!

It could have been worse. All the comments have been reduced, but Antane, who lives north of Chicago, was actually at TTT last Tuesday when the power went out. Storms. The theatre gave viewers rainchecks. They're re-showing TTT Monday. That's great, but I would have had cried buckets if I'd driven all that way only to watch half and hour of the film and be told, sorry, you'll have to come back another day. But nature is no respecter of LOTR fans. :)